JNLR

mike65

Irish Times article
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0729/1224301563920.html

THE LATEST radio listenership figures show a boost for RTÉ’s flagship news programmes but a drop for high-profile presenters Marian Finucane and Ryan Tubridy.

Tubridy’s figures continued the marked slide seen in the last listenership report as he presents two hours of the 2fm slot held by the late Gerry Ryan.

Tubridy, who began presenting a summer show for BBC Radio 2 last Saturday, recorded a drop of 16,000 listeners since the last report. He held his place at number 19

The JNLR/Ipsos MRBI survey covers the period July 2010 to June 2011 and compares it to the April 2010 to March 2011 figures.

A second drop in a row was also recorded by Colm Hayes, who presents the last hour of Gerry Ryan’s old slot. He lost 12,000 listeners.

Tubridy and Hayes continued to be beaten in this slot by the Ray D’Arcy Show, which, despite a drop of 6,000 listeners, held its number 15 placing.

“Talk of Ray D’Arcy having 26,000 listeners more than Ryan Tubridy is nonsense,” head of 2fm John McMahon said. “Clearly a two-hour show and a three-hour show cannot be compared. The gap is much, much less.”

Mr McMahon added that the figures were “challenging” for 2fm.

The radio station lost 0.5 per cent market share to 7.3 per cent.

It also saw the breakfast show, presented by Hector Ó hEochagáin, drop by 7,000 listeners.

The report uncovered “some challenging trends for key players in the radio industry”, RTÉ Radio managing director Claire Duignan said.

RTÉ Radio produced 19 of the 20 most-listened-to programmes in the survey.

However, both of Marian Finucane’s weekend programmes recorded a drop for the second set of figures in a row. Her Saturday show lost 8,000 listeners and the Sunday show lost 6,000 listeners. However, she held her number three and four ranking.


Head of RTÉ Radio One Jim Jennings said there had been a predicted “plateau” after massive rates of growth.

Both programmes in the 10am weekend slots made impressive gains. Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday programme, Miriam Meets, continued its rise, adding 8,000 listeners. George Lee’s Saturday business show gained 5,000 listeners, after a 16,000 loss in the last report.

Lee was not the only former Fine Gael TD to gain listeners. Newstalk Breakfast , co-presented by former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue, gained 11,000 listeners to 110,000.

The listener appetite for news programming on RTÉ Radio One continued to rise, with the News at One gaining 4,000 listeners and Morning Ireland solidifying its top spot with a gain of 4,000 listeners.

The second most listened-to show, Liveline , lost 4,000 listeners after large gains in the last report.

RTÉ’s Drivetime with Mary Wilson was the only early-evening national news programme to record gains, adding 6,000 listeners. Main rivals Matt Cooper and George Hook dropped 3,000 and 4,000 listeners respectively.

That Tubbers slot is only just in the top 20 must mean changes will be made, if 2FM have nothing in the top rated shows while pumping out mainstream fare its going to be very hard to justify its continued existence in its current form.

Elmo

If you can't compare 2 hour shows to 3 hour show then tell us the average audience of 2FM and Today FM for an hour of Tubs, D'arcy and Hayes.

GSF

However, both of Marian Finucane’s weekend programmes recorded a drop for the second set of figures in a row. Her Saturday show lost 8,000 listeners and the Sunday show lost 6,000 listeners. However, she held her number three and four ranking.

I know she has a lot of time off, but I'm sure she presented more than 2 shows this quarter

constitutionus

interesting to see despite all the slagging they get from some quarters chris and ivan are pulling in more listeners on the breakfast show on newstalk.

seems getting shot of claire byrne was a win win situation for the company and the listeners.

Elmo

constitutionus wrote: »

interesting to see despite all the slagging they get from some quarters chris and ivan are pulling in more listeners on the breakfast show on newstalk.

I would only expect NewsTalk to increase audience or plateau, it would be very disappointing if they dropped audience.

Elmo

THE LATEST radio listenership figures show a boost for RTÉ’s flagship news programmes but a drop for high-profile presenters Marian Finucane and Ryan Tubridy.

Tubridy’s figures continued the marked slide seen in the last listenership report as he presents two hours of the 2fm slot held by the late Gerry Ryan.

Tubridy, who began presenting a summer show for BBC Radio 2 last Saturday, recorded a drop of 16,000 listeners since the last report. He held his place at number 19

The JNLR/Ipsos MRBI survey covers the period July 2010 to June 2011 and compares it to the April 2010 to March 2011 figures.

A second drop in a row was also recorded by Colm Hayes, who presents the last hour of Gerry Ryan’s old slot. He lost 12,000 listeners.

Tubridy and Hayes continued to be beaten in this slot by the Ray D’Arcy Show, which, despite a drop of 6,000 listeners, held its number 15 placing.

“Talk of Ray D’Arcy having 26,000 listeners more than Ryan Tubridy is nonsense,” head of 2fm John McMahon said. “Clearly a two-hour show and a three-hour show cannot be compared. The gap is much, much less.”

Mr McMahon added that the figures were “challenging” for 2fm.

The radio station lost 0.5 per cent market share to 7.3 per cent.

It also saw the breakfast show, presented by Hector Ó hEochagáin, drop by 7,000 listeners.

The report uncovered “some challenging trends for key players in the radio industry”, RTÉ Radio managing director Claire Duignan said.

RTÉ Radio produced 19 of the 20 most-listened-to programmes in the survey.

However, both of Marian Finucane’s weekend programmes recorded a drop for the second set of figures in a row. Her Saturday show lost 8,000 listeners and the Sunday show lost 6,000 listeners. However, she held her number three and four ranking.


Head of RTÉ Radio One Jim Jennings said there had been a predicted “plateau” after massive rates of growth.

Both programmes in the 10am weekend slots made impressive gains. Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday programme, Miriam Meets, continued its rise, adding 8,000 listeners. George Lee’s Saturday business show gained 5,000 listeners, after a 16,000 loss in the last report.

Lee was not the only former Fine Gael TD to gain listeners. Newstalk Breakfast , co-presented by former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue, gained 11,000 listeners to 110,000.

The listener appetite for news programming on RTÉ Radio One continued to rise, with the News at One gaining 4,000 listeners and Morning Ireland solidifying its top spot with a gain of 4,000 listeners.

The second most listened-to show, Liveline , lost 4,000 listeners after large gains in the last report.

RTÉ’s Drivetime with Mary Wilson was the only early-evening national news programme to record gains, adding 6,000 listeners. Main rivals Matt Cooper and George Hook dropped 3,000 and 4,000 listeners respectively.

:pac:

Rubik.

According to head of RTE radio Clare Duignan -

"Tubridy has found its rhythm."

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gerry-ryan-fans-desert-tubridy-as-ratings-slide-2834812.html

You can kind of understand purely commerical stations coming out with that kind of crap, but the head of RTE radio should really be above that sort of intelligence insulting nonsense.

GSF

2FM must not have recorded a single show with an audience increase. If they did, no matter how obscure, it would have been part of the press release. Previously they used to focus on things like weekend breakfast or late night where you can easily get a big % increase off a small listenership.

Poly

Rubik. wrote: »

According to head of RTE radio Clare Duignan -

"Tubridy has found its rhythm."

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gerry-ryan-fans-desert-tubridy-as-ratings-slide-2834812.html

That rhythm being the slow repetitive daily regurgitations of a lazy, unimaginative, talentless broadcaster

Elmo

GSF wrote: »

2FM must not have recorded a single show with an audience increase. If they did, no matter how obscure, it would have been part of the press release. Previously they used to focus on things like weekend breakfast or late night where you can easily get a big % increase off a small listenership.

Zig and Zag have 131,000 viewers, if that helps!

GSF

Elmo wrote: »

Zig and Zag have 131,000 viewers, if that helps!

Next book they will over take Tubridy. How long before they move to weekdays?

Tipp FM tops again......................................................................

serfboard

Chakra Blue wrote: »

Tipp FM tops again......................................................................

No it isn't ... where'd you get that from? The top stations are Highland and Kerry.

mikom

Elmo wrote: »

Zig and Zag have 131,000 viewers, if that helps!

Big windows in that studio.........

serfboard

Rubik. wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gerry-ryan-fans-desert-tubridy-as-ratings-slide-2834812.html

From that article:

Ryan Tubridy has lost 110,000 listeners since replacing the late Gerry Ryan on radio.

Now just 186,000 listeners tune in to 'Tubridy' on weekdays between nine and 11am. That compares with 296,000 listeners in May 2010.

Derryleigh

Looking at those figures (Mary Wilson, Ray Darcy, Ronan Collins), either those polled are telling lies or the people have no taste. Which is it?

Badabing

JNLR out today, only heard that Ray D'arcy is up 16,000 oct 10 to sep 11.

Rubik.

Newstalk now reaches over 300,000 listeners daily.
That is according to the latest JNLR figures which were released earlier.
Our shows also saw an increase in audience.
‘Breakfast’, ‘The Right Hook’ and ‘Moncrieff’ all saw gains.
‘Breakfast’ is now reaching an audience of 115,000 listeners daily.
It is the fastest growing breakfast show on national radio.
‘Moncrieff’ has grown to reach 93,000 listeners per day.
While ‘The Right Hook’ continues to be the number one program on Newstalk with 121,000 people tuning in everyday.
‘Off the Ball’ remains the number one sports show on national radio.
It reached 44,000 people daily which is an increase of 9,000.
The station also picked up an additional 20,000 Dublin listeners.
Newstalk CEO Frank Cronin said “Newstalk is delighted to grow its audience by 18,000 and break the 300,000 daily listeners barrier”.
“Our brand of talk radio and our extensive and informative analysis of breaking news continues to win listeners across the country”.
“Listeners are turning to Newstalk for its exciting, opinionated and challenging coverage of day-to-day events” he added.


http://www.newstalk.ie/2011/featured-5-slideshow-homepage/newstalk-breaks-300000-barrier/

Rubik.

Tubridy loses another 11,000, same old nonsense from RTE.

Station manager John McMahon said he was confident that “ongoing work we’re doing to improve both Hector [Ó hEochagáin]and Ryan’s shows, and indeed every show on 2fm, will pay dividends over time”, but conceded that there were “changes that have to bed down fully”.

They didn't even release Hector's figures, the must be particularly bad.

http://www.thejournal.ie/tubridy-drops-more-listeners-in-latest-jnlr-figures-265225-Oct2011/

jimmy2flutes

4fm saying they have gone up by 30%. They now have 65 listeners instead of 50!

fred funk }{

Anyone know what Tom Dunnes figures are?

mike65

RTE Radio 2 now on 8% of the Dublin market, to put that in context Lyric has 6%!

GSF

mike65 wrote: »

RTE Radio 2 now on 8% of the Dublin market, to put that in context Lyric has 6%!

To look of the bright side, the rate of fall of 2FM listeners is decreasing though as it gets closer to zero.;)

Elmo

Bard wrote: »

Got this in the email from Radio Nova:

http://zoomailer.net/KQS-DC0F-7332T16F8B/cr.aspx

It says:

We've already got more than half as many listeners in the Dublin commuter area as Today FM, 2FM and Newstalk - and we've already clocked up 120,000 weekly listeners!

18 weeks old and we're the fastest growing station in the business and the most successful radio station launch in years.

More here: http://www.nova.ie/2011/02/radio-novas-jnlr-figures/

They were always going to be the fastest growing station at launch i am sure 4fm could have claimed the same at launch.

HugoBradyBrown

Is there a graphic of credible listenership figures available to the public for RTE Lyric FM's morning programme? I need something public in order to prove a point, and cannot rely on privileged information sources. Ideally, something by 15" slots, with normalization.

Many thanks,

Hugo Brady Brown

Btr

4fm is being listened to quite a bit more outside Dublin of that there's no doubt. Minute to 2fm, you're in deep trouble and not improving. Views to the contrary out of Montrose are fanciful. As someone who listened to 2fm in the good old days, it's demise is sad.

MadsL

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Is there a graphic of credible listenership figures available to the public for RTE Lyric FM's morning programme? I need something public in order to prove a point, and cannot rely on privileged information sources. Ideally, something by 15" slots, with normalization.

Many thanks,

Hugo Brady Brown

Care to share Hugo?

BrianD

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Is there a graphic of credible listenership figures available to the public for RTE Lyric FM's morning programme? I need something public in order to prove a point, and cannot rely on privileged information sources. Ideally, something by 15" slots, with normalization.

Many thanks,

Hugo Brady Brown

The figure is in the JNLR book which you will either have to be a subscriber or ask somebody in a radio station or ad agency.

There will be a figure for the programme reach, average audience and then for each quarter hour within the show.

HugoBradyBrown

BrianD wrote: »

The figure is in the JNLR book which you will either have to be a subscriber or ask somebody in a radio station or ad agency.

There will be a figure for the programme reach, average audience and then for each quarter hour within the show.

Thanks BrianD for this effectively complete answer.

I was hoping that there would be somewhere a public domain graphic of this information. My requirement for public domain information is to be able to direct the attention of some people to it, so that a credibility gap can be closed. Unfortunately my reliance on quoting authoritative data sources myself will not meet the high demands of those I wish to enlighten. Since the JNLR version of the listenership data is gathered and processed at some cost, I think it may be unlikely that the derived information will be freely available, and, so, certain questions about RTE Lyric FM listenership cannot be answered to universal satisfaction, especially where an effectively 'criminal' rather than a 'civil' level of certainty is demanded.

However, as I say, thank you for dealing so courteously with my perhaps naive question.

Kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Bard

jimmy2flutes wrote: »

4fm saying they have gone up by 30%. They now have 65 listeners instead of 50!

No, they now have over 144,000 listeners - a 30% jump from 111,000 last year.

TimmyTarmac

No, they now have over 144,000 listeners - a 30% jump from 111,000 last year.

Is that weekly or daily, Bard?

blue4ever

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Anyone know what Tom Dunnes figures are?

Toms programme block (10-12) had a reach of 55,000

Poly

blue4ever wrote: »

Toms programme block (10-12) had a reach of 55,000

Is that good or bad?

blue4ever

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Is there a graphic of credible listenership figures available to the public for RTE Lyric FM's morning programme? I need something public in order to prove a point, and cannot rely on privileged information sources. Ideally, something by 15" slots, with normalization.

Many thanks,

Hugo Brady Brown

Lyric quarter hours weekdays

blue4ever

Poly wrote: »

Is that good or bad?

He's in a different time segment (i think). But the graph is the best way to do this. Its the reach for the early part of the morning on N/t. Looks like it back all round.

GSF

blue4ever wrote: »

Lyric quarter hours weekdays

They should put Niall Carroll on breakfast and Lorcan Murray on weekday drive as they are by far Lyrics strongest performers.

Bard

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

Is that weekly or daily, Bard?

Weekly, afaik.

blue4ever

Bard wrote: »

No, they now have over 144,000 listeners - a 30% jump from 111,000 last year.

Couldn't figure that one at all - the 'official' JNLR figure for them is 131,000. However their website says 144,000 - However that a figure for April-September! A bit of smoke and mirrors there.
I worked in Print back in the day and when the JNRR figures came out it was a big no no to fcuk about with figures that way.

On the other hand it suggests that the first 6 months of this survey they had a listenership of 118,000 - just to give that a bit of balance!

HugoBradyBrown

GSF wrote: »

They should put Niall Carroll on breakfast and Lorcan Murray on weekday drive as they are by far Lyrics strongest performers.

Good stuff, but it would be misjudged if we were to be swayed simply by listenership statistics, when there is a PSB remit that must be observed. Niall Carroll is an exemplary broadcaster, with a flair for pronouncing foreign names, and a warmth that is not undercut by his sharp intelligence (and he has, in fact, been commended on-air by Gay as having the best male voice among the younger generation on Irish radio).

However, Marty brings something unique to morning radio, perhaps the hardest shift on a mixed classical - easy listening station like RTE Lyric FM. He does something with the slot that few other broadcasters here could do, not least because few of us are capable of such bright-eyed & bushy-tailed talking into the empty ether at 7am! And with his ability to conjure up pictures for the listener, he can bring something of afternoon TV to the wireless in the early morning. On a Friday Neven's enlivenment of the programme alone, setting us up for a weekend's cooking, differentiates the programme from such competition as there is at that hour. And think of the ground-breaking interviews that he dots throughout the week (some or all of them available as podcasts on the mini-site): Niall has the CultureFile insert, by the man with the foreign accent, but Marty does it all solo, almost.


Hugo Brady Brown

eiresandra

blue4ever wrote: »

Couldn't figure that one at all - the 'official' JNLR figure for them is 131,000. However their website says 144,000 - However that a figure for April-September! A bit of smoke and mirrors there.
I worked in Print back in the day and when the JNRR figures came out it was a big no no to fcuk about with figures that way.

On the other hand it suggests that the first 6 months of this survey they had a listenership of 118,000 - just to give that a bit of balance!

My understanding is that you are not allowed to use the six month figure for pr purposes.

blue4ever

I assumed it was the same for Radio stats. It's not exactly a Press release - its simply a figure on their site?!

DEFTLEFTHAND

Poly wrote: »

Is that good or bad?

Its a drop of 15,000 according to today's Independent. When you compare it to the figures of the shows he competes against it doesn't look too good at all for Dunne.

BrianD

eiresandra wrote: »

My understanding is that you are not allowed to use the six month figure for pr purposes.

You can as long as you compare like with like i.e can't compare a 6mth figure for station A against a 12mth for Station B.

HugoBradyBrown wrote:

Since the JNLR version of the listenership data is gathered and processed at some cost, I think it may be unlikely that the derived information will be freely available, and, so, certain questions about RTE Lyric FM listenership cannot be answered to universal satisfaction, especially where an effectively 'criminal' rather than a 'civil' level of certainty is demanded.

I am now curious! Why do you need these figures. BTW the JNLRs are the only official figures available. There are no other versions.

All the stations pay a hefty subscriber fee for the survey, hence they only make topline figures available. You could write to RTE and ask them for the figure.

HugoBradyBrown

BrianD wrote: »

You can as long as you compare like with like i.e can't compare a 6mth figure for station A against a 12mth for Station B.

I am now curious! Why do you need these figures. BTW the JNLRs are the only official figures available. There are no other versions.

All the stations pay a hefty subscriber fee for the survey, hence they only make topline figures available. You could write to RTE and ask them for the figure.

I have been assisting in coming to a true public understanding of the listenership of the RTE Lyric FM morning show, Marty in the Morning. It seems that the 'official' figures are low, and, since this is in tension with my own knowledge from discussing the situation with other people, I have been curious as to why this should be the case.

I have come to the conclusion that the trend of the official figures through the morning, when graphed, is probably fairly accurate, but that the graph is only tracking the true situation. (A reader of Boards has kindly provided a graph of one sequence of data.)

My belief, sustained by informal focus group work with listeners, is that certain extraneous factors have come into play, which 'poison' the statistical picture. Most particularly, there is in relation to Marty Whelan's programme a perception that it is, as it were, 'uncool' or unsophisticated to report listening to it. In addition, listeners in certain demographic groups seem to believe that it is more respectable to be thought to be listening to, for example, Morning Ireland, rather than to a relatively light-hearted music and comedy programme. There is a thread on Boards which deals with this topic, among other aspects of what is abbreviated as MITM.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056013868&page=24

I understand from within the station that things are actually quite rosy in relation to MITM figures. And I think the logic of the position is quite well set out in the other thread. It's useful to realise that these statistics are only a guide, rather than a definitive, positivistic statement of the position.

Thanks for taking the time to consider this, and kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

GSF

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

In addition, listeners in certain demographic groups seem to believe that it is more respectable to be thought to be listening to, for example, Morning Ireland, rather than to a relatively light-hearted music and comedy programme.

Since the survey is anonomous this is unlikely to be an issue.

Its often difficult for hardcore fans (groupies?) to accept that their enthusiasm for a performer is not shared by the entire country but dont go blaming the statistics just because you dont like the result.

HugoBradyBrown

GSF wrote: »

Since the survey is anonomous this is unlikely to be an issue.

Its often difficult for hardcore fans (groupies?) to accept that their enthusiasm for a performer is not shared by the entire country but dont go blaming the statistics just because you dont like the result.

Thanks GSF, but something has to be the cause of the anomaly. I think that many people distrust guarantees of anonymity in surveys, as I do myself, from bitter personal experience. And also, I think that people like to think well of themselves, and can even engage in self-deception in relation to a matter like radio listenership. It's on all fours with how people underreport their alcohol consumption, or truly believe that they go hillwalking every weekend, or imagine that they never touch dessert.

You see, my own experience, fortified by some almost relentless questioning of other radio listeners, leads me to see a large credibility gap open up in relation to the MITM listenership figures. I can well believe the trend over the course of the 3 hours of the broadcast, which coheres with commonsensical considerations of how people rise in the morning, and go about their ablutions, get the children off to school, get ourselves out to college and so forth. But, the true picture would require the graph to be shifted up the axis, with the valid trace running largely in parallel to the reported one.

I am not certain that there might not even be some effect arising from the low end of the listenership range, of 3 - 6 % of listeners; there could be some 'noise' diminishing the confidence we could have in numbers at that end of the range.

Incidentally, there is considerable calm and confidence in RTE Lyric FM HQ in relation to the listenership, and I think they may be relying on other, possibly more satisfying, data sources.

(I, for one, know hardly anyone in a large circle of personal acquaintance who does not listen to MITM for at least part of the broadcast time. Few enough of us have the leisure to enjoy the programme across the full 3 hours, but, I think that is hardly expected in Limerick.)


Hugo Brady Brown

eiresandra

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Incidentally, there is considerable calm and confidence in RTE Lyric FM HQ in relation to the listenership, and I think they may be relying on other, possibly more satisfying, data sources.

There are no other listenership figures in the broadcast industry that carry any credence other than JNLRs. Internal tracking figures aren't worth a jot.

What does it matter anyway? Lyric is a state-funded niche service. Listenership figures have never been an important factor. Marty will probably overtake Hector sooner or later!

HugoBradyBrown

eiresandra wrote: »

There are no other listenership figures in the broadcast industry that carry any credence other than JNLRs. Internal tracking figures aren't worth a jot.

What does it matter anyway? Lyric is a state-funded niche service. Listenership figures have never been an important factor. Marty will probably overtake Hector sooner or later!

Yes, Eiresandra, I realise that in a PSB system, qualitative measures must always outweigh quantitative. However, in my experience, accountants and other bean-counters are rather linear, simple souls, with an attachment to what they naively believe are objective 'metrics', as they call them. You and I will appreciate this, but there will be citizens who are easily led by headline figures, and who will thus make demands on us to alter a good and wholesome product, when it is delivering to its solidly growing appreciative audience.

My main point holds, however: that, for some reason, listenership figures that may be quite credible when assessing the audiences for pop stations may be quite unsuited to higher quality broadcasting. In the case of the pop / former pirate segment of the market, there is nothing to choose between them, so there is obviously no incentive or pressure on respondents to claim to listen to one station over another. (I realise that this statement is susceptible to some criticism at the margins, but the broad thrust of my point holds.)

I think that some system, such as the internal RTE data gathering methodologies, may be necessary to supplement the frankly crude JNLR-type merely quantitative measures. Something qualitative rather than such brute quantitative measures would be likely to give depth, colour and texture to the audience figures for high-quality services like RTE Lyric FM, and to provide a more positive and appealing picture of the situation. (My suspicion, incidentally, is that the advertising profession are aware of this in any case, hence the prestige advertising and sponsorship that RTE Lyric FM has already attracted.)

Hugo Brady Brown

BrianD

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Yes, Eiresandra, I realise that in a PSB system, qualitative measures must always outweigh quantitative. However, in my experience, accountants and other bean-counters are rather linear, simple souls, with an attachment to what they naively believe are objective 'metrics', as they call them. You and I will appreciate this, but there will be citizens who are easily led by headline figures, and who will thus make demands on us to alter a good and wholesome product, when it is delivering to its solidly growing appreciative audience.

My main point holds, however: that, for some reason, listenership figures that may be quite credible when assessing the audiences for pop stations may be quite unsuited to higher quality broadcasting. In the case of the pop / former pirate segment of the market, there is nothing to choose between them, so there is obviously no incentive or pressure on respondents to claim to listen to one station over another. (I realise that this statement is susceptible to some criticism at the margins, but the broad thrust of my point holds.)

I think that some system, such as the internal RTE data gathering methodologies, may be necessary to supplement the frankly crude JNLR-type merely quantitative measures. Something qualitative rather than such brute quantitative measures would be likely to give depth, colour and texture to the audience figures for high-quality services like RTE Lyric FM, and to provide a more positive and appealing picture of the situation. (My suspicion, incidentally, is that the advertising profession are aware of this in any case, hence the prestige advertising and sponsorship that RTE Lyric FM has already attracted.)

Hugo Brady Brown

I find it hard to work out what exactly your point is. Do you believe that Lyric is under represented in the survey results?

You are correct about what you are saying about qualitative V quantitative research. Just because more people consume it doesn't mean that it is any good.

The origins of the JNLR is to provide listenership for advertisers to aid them planning and measuring results. The use of JNLR for programming is technically a secondary purpose. JNLR tells you nothing about the quality of a programme - only the types and numbers of people who listened. If you make a change to a programme, you can only infer from future data whether that change was a success or failure.

Many broadcasters undertake their own qualitative research for programming purposes but few publish it as it may conflict with JNLR data.

HugoBradyBrown

Thanks again BrianD for shining a searching light when a post seemed opaque or incomplete. Let me explain. 'Qualitative' comes in two distinct, if related, flavours in my argument.

The 'qualitative' point about RTE Lyric FM in the morning is that brute numbers are only a rough-and-ready indicator of success. On a qualitiative measure, the morning programme is a soaraway success; this means on both a qualitative assessment of the output, and a qualitative assessment of the impact it has on the listener. The listener is clearly moved and affected to a greater degree by, for example, MITM on RTE Lyric FM at 8 am, than she or he is by something on a pop or ex-pirate station.

Beyond that, however, is the self-evident fact that the JNLR survey results are for some reason failing to reflect an accurate picture of the RTE Lyric FM audience; the reasons for this deserve to be teased out and, if possible, addressed in the surveys. Here, too, some qualitative or subjective research may be of value. Aside from mere statistical factors coming into play when listenership figures are shown to be at the lowish end of the spectrum, clearly there are those rather elusive, somewhat intangible subjective factors that impel respondents towards false reporting of their listening choices.

In the case of MITM, in particular, there is the skewing factor of the contempt with which the programme is treated, both by professional radio critics, and by bien pensant opinion formers elsewhere. Unless the survey can be corrected for such biases, it will lead astray naive readers of the numbers. My personal intuition is that listenership for MITM is probably closer to the 100 000 mark in the latter stages of the show, to extrapolate with well-founded confidence from my personal knowledge.


Hugo Brady Brown

BrianD wrote: »

I find it hard to work out what exactly your point is. Do you believe that Lyric is under represented in the survey results?

You are correct about what you are saying about qualitative V quantitative research. Just because more people consume it doesn't mean that it is any good.

The origins of the JNLR is to provide listenership for advertisers to aid them planning and measuring results. The use of JNLR for programming is technically a secondary purpose. JNLR tells you nothing about the quality of a programme - only the types and numbers of people who listened. If you make a change to a programme, you can only infer from future data whether that change was a success or failure.

Many broadcasters undertake their own qualitative research for programming purposes but few publish it as it may conflict with JNLR data.